Magic tricks: Chapter two

My head hurt so bad. All I could feel or hear was the pounding in my temples. I knew my eyes were open, but everything above me seemed blurry and disfigured. I had to blink a few times before I could see straight.

“Oh my god, he’s awake.” I heard Alex say somewhere next to me, and then her and Sen’s face appeared above me.

“Hey.” Sen said quietly. “How are you feeling?”

“My head hurts.” I told her.

“Yeah, you’ve been out four hours. They had to give you some sedatives to put your oxygen mask on. They literally just took it off half an hour ago.” Said Alex.

“Where’s my mom?” I asked.

“Oh yeah. She’s in the waiting room. Sen can you go get her?”

Sen nodded and disappeared from my line of view. Alex sighed and flopped into a chair next to my bed. I turned my head to look at her.

“You scared me so bad.” She said finally.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be stupid.” She said with a glare, but her eyes were red and puffy and I felt even worse. “The doctors… well, they were pretty worried too.”
“I don’t know what happened. I haven’t had an asthma attack like this for years.”

She looked at me in surprise. “You’ve had this kind of thing before?”
I shifted uncomfortably. Yeah, that was the final straw that made dad leave. I still felt guilty for it. It was the last thing my mom needed. “Can I sit up?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

“Sen’ll bring the doctors and your mom in in a minute. We can ask them.”
“Oh my god! Oh my god, my baby!” My mom burst in and started feeling my forehead and hugging me. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t there! I was so scared. Oh my god, I’m just glad you’re awake.”
“Yeah, me too.”

“The doctors want to run some tests, so we should probably leave.” Sen told my mom.

My mom hugged me again, and I could still see tear streaks on her face. “Okay. Stay strong, honey.”

The tests weren’t so bad. I had an X-ray of my lungs and some blood taken, so I was a little light headed and dizzy, but otherwise unharmed. The doctors told me that often attacks were caused when something particularly stressful was going on or when something triggered it(like running), but I was going to be fine and could leave that day. On the way home, my mom stopped at McDonalds and said I could get anything I wanted, which was definitely splurging, and a complete waste because I was sick to my stomach and couldn’t eat anyway. I texted Alex and Sen to force my mom into McDonalds because she needed a break while I stayed in the car and buy it with my spending money, but Alex called me an idiot and said she was paying, and that someone needed to stay in the car with me. Sen opted for the job and Alex let her, so my mother was forced into McDonalds and me and Sen sat in the car. This might’ve seemed awkward or inappropriate to other people, but Sen was just worried about me and I felt like I knew her so well it didn’t matter.

“Are you okay?” She asked. I nodded. “You don’t seem okay.”

“I’m just a little stressed.”

“Remember what the doctor said.”

“What? Oh that. I know, its just hard not to feel upset. I mean,” I glanced behind my shoulder to make sure my mom and Alex were still in the store. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but if I had parents like Alex, who didn’t have to work eleven hours a day to keep my health insurance up, I wouldn’t have to worry so much. I love my mom, its just… sometimes I wonder if she’d be better off without me.”
“Your mom loves you. She be devastated if you were gone. Don’t think that way.”

“I guess you wouldn’t know. I feel guilty all the time!” I paused and realized how mean that was. “Sorry.”

“I drew you.” She handed me a sheet of paper.

“Um… oh, wow. This is amazing.”

“That one’s to keep.”
“I can keep this? Wow, thanks. You’ve never let me keep one of your drawings before!”

“Yeah, I figured you needed a pick me up.”
“Like heck.” I told her, and we both laughed.

I spent the next week at home, and my mom made me stay in bed most the time, but everyday after school, Alex and Sen would visit me, so it wasn’t so bad.

On my final day of rest, Alex and Sen came over to celebrate.

“I made cake.” Said Alex, throwing a very sad mushy thing on the table.

“Oh it looks incredible!” My mom gushed. Alex just smiled. I knew she liked my mom a lot. I had always thought she was a little bit jealous of me because she didn’t get along with her parents. To be honest, I didn’t blame her. I definitely had an awesome mom.

“Well, I’m going to run out to the car and grab something. I got a little gift for you.” She said, winking at me.

As soon as she was gone both girls turned on me.

“What did I do?!”

“We have bad news.”
“Oh no.” It could have been anything the way they said it. Anywhere from a dead relative to cancer. “What happened?”

“They bumped the talent show to tomorrow.”
“Oh.” I sighed with relief. That was one way to make bad news not seem so bad. It was still pretty disappointing though. I had won the talent show held annually at our school every year since I had moved three years ago. Magic was my life. Though I never really displayed in public unless someone particularly asked me, and occasionally in front of my friends, but I loved to do I for my mom, and in the safety of my own room. If there was one thing I could do, it was magic tricks. But I didn’t know if I could pull it off. Usually I planned for a week in advance, spending hours in my room prepping, but in all the confusing, I’d forgotten, and now they bumped it to tomorrow.

“What am I going to do?” I asked my friends.

“You don’t have enough time to prep?” Alex asked me.

I shook my head.

“That’s a shame. Watching you and your magic tricks are the highlight of my year.” Sen said softly.

“Am I that good?” I joked.

“No-well, yes, but it’s more your face. It just lights up. Like you’re doing what you love.”

“She’s right, its adorable.” Alex sarcastically remarked.

“You guys are ganging up on me.” I said, but suddenly a brilliant idea popped up in my head. “Actually, I might have an idea for the talent show.”

“What is it?” They asked in unison.

So I told them.